Mahishasurmardini

Mahishasurmardini

Mahishasurmardini

A sculpture with no face and the torso, but with the limbs, on a bull, this is a mutilated sculpture of Mahishasurmardini or of the Goddess Durga slaying the demon Mahishasur as he emerges from the body of the bull.
Legend has it that Mahishsur was a demon who had made life difficult for the Devas or the benevolent divine souls. It was ordained that the demon can only be killed by a woman. The trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva along with the Devas then created Durga and granted to her their combined divine powers so that she became more powerful than all of them. Durga then fights the bull in whose body the demon Mahishasur was hiding.
The sculpture shows Durga twisting the neck of the bull. As the bull was slayed, Mahishasur emerged from the bull and Durga kills the demon with her trident . Durga is typically worshipped in this form during the festival of Navratri or Durga Puja. She can otherwise also be seen as riding a tiger, her mount.